From time to time I meet people who had the chance to do things i was not able to do or not clever enough to be.

I have met a few ex pro cricketers for instance (a sport i love but was never in that class as a player). I also meet people who had other professions I have an interest in, a man who inspected nuclear power facilities for instance (he said you really get to know the value of a fast car sometimes!). I find pigeon fanciers pretty interesting too, that took me by surprise as well but they are collectively an interesting bunch, trust me.

However, by and large, i find ex servicemen much more interesting. Growing up in a naval city i am fascinated to find out what life aboard those grey hulks was actually like. But thanks to my Dad I have a passion for the air. Meeting ex RAF means finding someone who either flew the great post war beasts of the 50's or someone who had intimate knowledge of them.

This week I met one of the latter. He was ground crew, a member of that happy band who never get into the films but though there often ingenious solutions enabled those "few" to do their stuff.

This chap worked on Vulcans.



These machines were 100 feet tip to tip and the Olympus engines were the same ones that powered Concord. They are a legend.

This fella was telling a story about nuts and bolts. That is how they built them in those days. The finale of his story was that he was replacing some screws within the engine air intake. He thought he was all alone at the time but as he was fiddling he heard some crew arrive and the unmistakable sounds from within that this aircraft was being readies to go somewhere. This plane was out of service and was not due to go anywhere. It turned out to be a radar check. unfortunately for our mechanic this would mean firing up all four engines for a bit. This was not good news. What was worse was that as this was an "Engine up" procedure all the crew on board and outside were suited and booted. Flying hats, intercoms and air supply the works and were thus not able to interact with the real world just each other. RR Olympus make a heck of a din

They would also make mincemeat of our mechanic. He needed to draw attention to himself. The only crew on the ground had his back to him.There was nothing else but to throw stuff at him. anything that came to hand went in the Flight Sergeants direction but all missed. Having exhausted his tool box he was down to his service torch which weighed a couple of pounds and fortunately hit the NCO right between the shoulder blades.

This gave the NCO quite a shock but not as much of a shock as being waved at from an engine nacelle by a luckless mechanic! The radar guys thought the plane unoccupied so a good time to run up some checks. It was 2 a.m. after all

Perhaps that tells us something. both sets of crew figured that it was such a ridiculous time no one else would be out there. So they both were.

So I guess the moral of that story is that if you have a big idea just be double sure you had it all by yourself.